Religion and Digital Media

Campbell, Heidi A.; Connelly, Louise

doi:10.1002/9781118660072.ch25

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Nonetheless, I believe this case serves as a compelling example to reveal the importance of scrutinizing religion by highlighting the bodily practices of believers, and how these are (scarcely) substituted in times of physical and social distancing. This article should thus be regarded as a contribution to, among other things, the existing scholarship particularly focusing on Catholicism and digital religion; see for instance Giorgi (2019), Evolvi (2018) and Kołodziejska (2018), and scholarship on digital religion and materiality more broadly; as well as Campbell and Connelly (2020). This scholarship differs from my analysis here, but it can nevertheless help to come to a better understanding of (online) religious practices.…”

Section: Conclusion and Suggestions For Further Researchmentioning

confidence: 80%

Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and Performativity

Huygens

2021

Religions

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This article aims to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the religious lifestyles of practicing female Roman Catholics in Belgium. I explore how these Catholic believers manage to stay in touch with their faith and faith community in times of crisis when physical and real-life contact is very limited. In this article, I draw on in-depth interviews conducted via Zoom, carried out in the framework of my current ethnographic research project. The empirical results show how Catholic women grappled with the multiple lockdowns during the last year and a half, and how the lockdowns led to severe changes in their religious practices and routines. Many believers had to find alternative possibilities and modalities in order to preserve continuity with their religious pre-COVID-19 lives. Throughout the article, I intend to map their practices and strategies. I will argue that inquiring how religion and religious practices are performed during a pandemic can contribute to the flourishing and timely scholarship on digital and online religion and it also provides us with further insights in the performativity, materiality, and embodiment of religion.

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Section: Conclusion and Suggestions For Further Researchmentioning

confidence: 80%

Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and Performativity

Huygens

2021

Religions

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“…Smart-phones indeed shape both the perception and the performance of religious practice, while the latter reshapes the use of the media, which thus become a religious artifact (Connelly 2013)-the sacralization of smartphones and digitalization of the sacred, in other words. The meanings and practices involved have both collective and individual dimensions (Campbell and Connelly 2020). For everyone, smartphones (see Figure 4) have become the main means of blessing for people who are not present.…”

Section: Broadcasting Shna Ndou Sainthoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the same time, they rematerialize practice into something extemporaneously usable. The boundaries between the virtual and the material blur, are mediated through the bodily deeds of the faithful and are embedded into the digital images saved on phones (Campbell and Connelly 2020).…”

Section: Broadcasting Shna Ndou Sainthoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious Materiality and Virtual Sainthood: The Case of Shna Ndou (St. Anthony) Pilgrimage in Laç

Bria,

Giorda

2023

Religions

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The interdisciplinary perspective, between history and anthropology, of our contribution has as its subject the pilgrimage at Kisha e Shna Ndout (Sanctuary of St. Anthony of Padua) in Laç, northern Albania, which is one of the most visited religious sites in southeastern Europe. The church, built there and ministered by Franciscans, is now an impressive place of worship frequented throughout the year by thousands of pilgrims. On the 12th and 13th of June of each year, an official pilgrimage is held, which reaches its climax on the night of the 12th, when thousands of Albanians sleep in the shrine seeking blessings and healing. The pilgrimage practices show how materiality is a privileged means of reaching out to a religious place. This materiality is grounded in the multilayered built environment, which has been built and rebuilt and especially reconstructed after the collapse of the socialist regime—a process that reveals the pivotal function of secular infrastructures in the case of religious places. Virtuality is also an important aspect of the pilgrimage, and so materiality and virtuality form a single milieu that reshapes perceptions. Through participation in this pilgrimage, virtuality is sacralized and promotes sanctity.

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“…Drawing from these theories of mediation, I propose there are three main reasons to approach digital religion considering materiality. First, digital artifacts and technological devices—smartphones, tablets, computers—are themselves material objects that can embody the religious experience (Campbell and Connelly 2020 ). Second, digital media may not allow tactile practices, but they facilitate visual culture which, Morgan ( 2005 ) writes, also helps to materialize religion by providing a “sacred gaze” connected to the sensors consumption of images.…”

Section: Digital Religion and Materialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, it is helpful to think of digital media in material terms because they may help people relate with the transcendental in practices of mediation, they include material technologies and visual aesthetics, and they are embedded in everyday material practices. The case of online rituals can illustrate how materiality and mediation are connected: in exploring Buddhist meditation in virtual environments, Heidi Campbell and Louise Connelly ( 2020 ) highlight how people meditate through avatars and digital artifacts that reproduce material objects, while at the same time reproducing practices in the offline space. This is also true for Neo-Paganism, an umbrella term that includes several religious communities that draw from pre-Christian beliefs.…”

Section: Digital Religion and Materialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Religion and the internet: digital religion, (hyper)mediated spaces, and materiality

Evolvi

2021

Z Religion Ges Polit

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This article offers theoretical reflections on the study of religion and the Internet by critically discussing the notion of “digital religion” (Campbell 2012). In particular, it stresses the importance of integrating material and spatial approaches to the study of digital religion. In doing so, it proposes the theory of “hypermediated religious spaces” to describe processes of religious mediation between online and offline environments by taking into account materiality and space. The article discusses theoretical perspectives by means of case studies: first, the importance of materiality within Internet practices is illustrated through the example of Neo-Pagan online rituals; second, the notion of space, and “third space” in particular, in relation to Internet practices is analyzed through the case of the hashtag #Nous-Sommes-Unis, circulated by French Muslims; third, the theory of hypermediated spaces is exemplified by the analysis of a live-streamed mass in the Italian city of Manerbio during the Covid-19 lockdown. The article aims at kindling scholarly reflections on terminologies and theories for the global and interdisciplinary study of digital religion.

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Religion and Digital Media

Cited by 12 publications

References 13 publications

Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and Performativity

Practicing Religion during a Pandemic: On Religious Routines, Embodiment, and Performativity

Religious Materiality and Virtual Sainthood: The Case of Shna Ndou (St. Anthony) Pilgrimage in Laç

Religion and the internet: digital religion, (hyper)mediated spaces, and materiality

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